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Tech tips, tricks, how-tos and new productsFri, 16 Mar 2018 15:35:05 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.43380380Mac Outlook 2016 Authentication Couldn’t be Completed Error Fixedhttp://www.kombitz.com/2018/03/16/mac-outlook-2016-authentication-couldnt-be-completed-error-fixed/
http://www.kombitz.com/2018/03/16/mac-outlook-2016-authentication-couldnt-be-completed-error-fixed/#respondFri, 16 Mar 2018 15:35:05 +0000http://www.kombitz.com/?p=4873When I tried to open Outlook on my Macbook Pro, I noticed that the folders are not synced. I checked the account settings and there is a yellow dot by my account. I tried to delete the account and set it up again and I got this error message:

Authentication couldn’t be completed.

Tried re-install Outlook did not fix it. Finally found out how to fix this problem. Here are what I did:

Quit Outlook.

Open up Finder.

Browse to ~/Library/Containers

Find these two folders and move them to trash. (You might not have the profilemanager folder)
com.microsoft.Outlook
com.microsoft.outlook.profilemanager

Open Outlook and try add the account.

]]>http://www.kombitz.com/2018/03/16/mac-outlook-2016-authentication-couldnt-be-completed-error-fixed/feed/04873How to Tweak the Motherboard for Mininghttp://www.kombitz.com/2018/03/06/how-to-tweak-the-motherboard-for-mining/
http://www.kombitz.com/2018/03/06/how-to-tweak-the-motherboard-for-mining/#respondTue, 06 Mar 2018 18:38:16 +0000http://www.kombitz.com/?p=4868When I first tested my mining rig, I didn’t change the settings for the motherboard. It didn’t go well. The machine was not stable at all and I could not get the motherboard to recognize some of the GPUs. After some research, I found that you have to tweak the motherboard settings for you to connect 6 GPUs. Here are the settings I changed:

Above 4G Decoding [Disabled] -> [Enabled]

PCIe Spread Spectrum Clocking [Auto] -> [Disabled]

PCIe Speed [Auto] -> [Gen2]

PCIEX16_1 Link Speed [Auto] -> [Gen2]

PCIEX16_2 Link Speed [Auto] -> [Gen2]

DMI Max Link Speed [Auto] -> [Gen2]

Note that you might not see all the settings available to you. That’s fine. Just change the available options for your motherboard. Also, if changing the speed of to Gen2 does not work for you, you can change them to Gen1.

]]>http://www.kombitz.com/2018/03/06/how-to-tweak-the-motherboard-for-mining/feed/04868My Mining Rig Setuphttp://www.kombitz.com/2018/02/27/my-mining-rig-setup/
http://www.kombitz.com/2018/02/27/my-mining-rig-setup/#respondTue, 27 Feb 2018 21:03:45 +0000http://www.kombitz.com/?p=4840Ever since I heard about mining, I was intrigued by the idea that you can set up a machine to earn passive income without much effort. I was lucky to set a mining rig up in December of 2017, when the GPU prices were still reasonable.

I did a lot of research on what cards to pick. I found that AMD cards are generally better than Nvidia card for mining Ethereum. Also, I had a lot of troubles installing Nvidia card on Linux in the past, so I decided to use AMD cards. The high end AMD cards like the Vega series are very expensive and they also consume a lot of power. Considering the price, power consumption, and performance, the RX 580 cards offer the best bang for your buck. Any RX 580 cards with over 4GB memory is good for now. However, it might not be possible to mine Ethereum using a 4GB card in 2019. Therefore, it might be worth it to get cards with 8GB memory.

The motherboard is very important and the other components depends on it to function. You want to pick a motherboard with enough PCI Express slots for the GPUs. I picked this motherboard because this one has 6 PCI Express slots and I like Asus brand in general. It also has two M.2 ports, so if you buy two M.2 to PCI Express adapters, you can connect 8 GPUs to the motherboard. There is also a motherboard designed for mining. You can connect 19 GPUs to it!

I am going to mine Ethereum using GPUs, so CPU is not that important. Picking an entry level CPU can also help you reduce the total power required. Since Asus Prime Z270P is a LGA 1151 motherboard, I picked Intel Celeron G3930.

You do not need a big hard drive for mining. I found a good price on this 128GB drive, so I bought it. If you are going to use Windows OS, you can get by using a 64GB SSD drive. For Linux, you don’t even need a SSD. People have used just a 16GB USB stick with success.

Power supply is very important in mining. You need enough power to drive all the GPUs and you also need enough connectors. The RX 580 card uses about 120W after modding. You need at least 1000W to drive the 6 RX 580 cards and the CPU. 1300W is a bit overkill, but I can add two more GPUs to my motherboard if I want to in the future. This power supply has 10 year warranty which is class leading in the industry.

You cannot connect 6 GPUs to the motherboard directly. Therefore you need riser cards. Unlike the other components I picked, there are no riser cards from established manufacturers. A lot of people said that most mining rig problems came from riser cards. I took a leap of faith when picking these cards, because there were not a lot of reviews about them. After a couple of months running the rig, these cards are still doing well.

There are some mining cases available on the market. However, they are expensive and do not have good reviews. I decided to use a milk crate initially, but I could not fit all 6 GPUs in it. I later found out the AmazonBasics chrome 3-shelf shelving unit is perfect for a mining rig. It is also very cheap. Note that because the shelf is make of metal, do not put the motherboard directly on the shelf. You need something to insulate the motherboard from the shelf. Also, when moving the unit, do not pick on the shelves. The shelves will be separated from the posts. Holding the posts to move the unit.

Since I do not use a computer case, I need cable ties to tie the components to the shelving unit. I also need a power switch for the motherboard. The Kill A Watt monitor is useful to find out the total power consumption of your rig. While the smart plug lets me shutdown/start the rig remotely. You also need a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse to set the rig up.

We found that the problem was caused by the Internet Explorer. After repair installation, the IE version was rolled back to version 8. The Box Drive uses Internet Explorer for logon. The older version of IE just does not work. The fix is to install a later version of IE. After we installed IE 11 on the computer, the Box Drive was working again.

]]>http://www.kombitz.com/2018/02/16/box-drive-on-windows-script-error-fixed/feed/04832How to Install H&R Block 2017 on a Second Computerhttp://www.kombitz.com/2018/01/30/how-to-install-hr-block-2017-on-a-second-computer/
http://www.kombitz.com/2018/01/30/how-to-install-hr-block-2017-on-a-second-computer/#respondTue, 30 Jan 2018 17:56:30 +0000http://www.kombitz.com/?p=4824If you bought H&R Block from the CD mailed to you, you might have troubles installing it on a second computer. Follow these easy steps to install it.

Click on Start Here, if the wizard is not already running.

Move the cursor to Support and you will see three options. Click on Learn More under New Computer Installation.

Enter the unlock code and the last 4 digits of the credit card you used to order it. Click on Unlock Software and follow the wizard to install H&R Block 2017.

]]>http://www.kombitz.com/2018/01/30/how-to-install-hr-block-2017-on-a-second-computer/feed/04824Adobe Acrobat Pro “Sign In Required” Loophttp://www.kombitz.com/2018/01/25/adobe-acrobat-pro-sign-in-required-loop/
http://www.kombitz.com/2018/01/25/adobe-acrobat-pro-sign-in-required-loop/#respondThu, 25 Jan 2018 22:46:33 +0000http://www.kombitz.com/?p=4821We installed Acrobat Pro for a user and she had no problems using it for weeks. The program suddenly prompted the user to sign in. My user tried to sign in, but got the sign-in prompt again and again, and the program never opens. I first did a repair installation and that did not help. I then uninstalled Acrobat and installed it again. Before we used the program for the first time, I used the adobe_prtk to serialize the program. I copied the adobe_prtk.exe to the machine and type this command in an elevated command prompt:

And this fixed the problem, the user does not need to sign in to Adobe to use the program. Note that the Acrobat version we installed is Acrobat DC 2017. If you have other version, you need to use the right LEID. Please consult this page for the LEID. Also, if you don’t have adobe_prtk.exe, you can download it from Adobe. Please see this page for more info regarding adobe_prtk.

The virtual machine ‘Windows 8’ has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1). More details may be available in ‘F:\Virtual Machines\Windows 8\Logs\VBoxHardening.log’.

Result Code:

E_FAIL (0x80004005)

Component:

MachineWrap

Interface:

IMachine {b2547866-a0a1-4391-8b86-6952d82efaa0}

I first tried some suggestions that I found on Google. They did not work. I noticed that I was not using the latest version of Virtual Box. I downloaded the latest version 5.1.30 r118389 (Qt5.6.2) and installed it. I was able to start my Windows 8 VM afterward.

]]>http://www.kombitz.com/2017/12/08/virtual-box-startup-terminated-e_fail-0x80004005-fixed/feed/04817How to Schedule a Reboot for Windows Computerhttp://www.kombitz.com/2017/11/28/how-to-schedule-a-reboot-for-windows-computer/
http://www.kombitz.com/2017/11/28/how-to-schedule-a-reboot-for-windows-computer/#respondTue, 28 Nov 2017 16:58:50 +0000http://www.kombitz.com/?p=4801From time to time, we need to schedule a reboot for our Windows servers. I did the screenshots on a server running Windows 2012, but it should apply to Windows 10. Here are the steps.

Search for Task Scheduler and run it.

Click on Create Basic Task.

Enter a name and click on Next

Select one time and click on Next.

Set the date and time you want to reboot your computer.

Select Start a program and click on Next.

Enter the information as shown in the screenshot and click on Next. Note that the code p:0:0 means the reboot is planned and the reason for reboot is Other. Please refer to the documentation of shutdown.exe if you need a different code.

Check Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish. Click on Finish